Thomas Vachell I of Coley (c. 1430)

Thomas Vachell I, son of William II, carried the Coley estate into the early Tudor period. Trained as a lawyer, he appears in the records as an attorney working far beyond Berkshire, which fits the wider pattern of Vachell service under the patronage of major ecclesiastical and noble households.

His first marriage, to Elizabeth Cockworthy of Yarnscombe in Devon, was a significant gentry alliance. Elizabeth was a daughter and co-heiress, and the match brought additional property and status into the family. Heraldic sources note that the Vachell arms—"bendy of six, ermine and gules"—were quartered with the Cockworthy cockerels, signalling both the alliance and the family's growing heraldic self-confidence. Thomas and Elizabeth had several children, including their heir Thomas, a younger son John and a daughter Margaret. After Elizabeth's death, Thomas married Margaret (surname uncertain), with whom he had at least one more son, Oliver. Both sons of the first marriage received a strong education: Oliver later served as a diplomat in the service of Bishop Stephen Gardiner, while Thomas entered the Middle Temple in London and rose to be an MP and key local figure under Henry VIII.

Although Thomas I himself left a lighter footprint in the narrative record than his son, he presided over Coley during a time of relative stability and used that stability to invest in his children's education and advancement. In doing so he created the conditions under which the Coley estate and the Vachell name would become intertwined with the English Reformation. For the present main curator of this site, Thomas Vachell I is a thirteen-times great-grandfather.

Sources (selected)

• Ounsley, M. (2024). "Treading carefully: The Vachells, 1405–1523." Coley Notebook (blog).
• History of Parliament. (n.d.). Entries for Oliver Vachell and Thomas Vachell (d. 1553).
• Metcalfe, W. C. (Ed.). (1901). The Visitation of Berkshire… Harleian Society.